History:
As Hellcat production was to begin in mid 1942, continued Wildcat production, deemed to be critical to the war effort, was transferred by Grumman to the Eastern Aircraft Company early in the year. The Eastern plants were in Linden, Trenton and Bloomfield, New Jersey, as well as Baltimore, Maryland. Linden’s advanced Buick, Oldsmobile and Pontiac plants, capable of producing an automobile a minute, were completely converted to produce Wildcats. It was required that aircraft components manufacuted at both plants be interchangable. So parts and assemblies were shared from Grumman lines to Eastern and back during the war assuring continuity when snags arose. There were 7,825 Wildcats built. The breakdown was 1,988 F4F Wildcats produced by Grumman between September 1937 and May 1943, and 5,837 FMs by Eastern between August 1942 and August 1945. By the time Hellcat production was in full swing, the lessons learned at Eastern’s Wildcat production in New Jersey enabled Grumman to build 400 Hellcats a month. The FM-1 Wildcat evolved with Eastern and Grumman collaborating on the new FM-2 design, which was required by the USN for its “Jeep” or Escort Carriers. The FM-2 was unveiled at a ceremony at Linden, New Jersey. The FM-2 was the most numerous and best performing Wildcat with 1,350 horsepower, bigger vertical tail surfaces and more fuel capacity, earning the name the “Wilder Wildcat.”

Railroad/Company:

General Motors Company was formed on September 16, 1908, in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company controlled by William C. Durant, owner of Buick. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were fewer than 8,000 automobiles in America, and Durant had become a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles in Flint, in the 1880s and 1890s, before making his foray into the automotive industry in 1904 by purchasing the fledgling Buick Motor Company.[ GM's co-founder was Charles Stewart Mott, whose carriage company was merged into Buick prior to GM's creation. Over the years, Mott became the largest single stockholder in GM, and spent his life with his Mott Foundation, which has benefited the city of Flint, his adopted home. GM acquired Oldsmobile later that year. In 1909, Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland, and several others. Also in 1909, GM acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessors of GMC Truck. Durant, along with R. S. McLaughlin, lost control of GM in 1910 to a bankers' trust, because of the large amount of debt taken on in its acquisitions, coupled with a collapse in new vehicle sales.

The next year, Durant started the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in the U.S., and in Canada in 1915, and through this, he secretly purchased a controlling interest in GM. Durant regained control of the company after one of the most dramatic proxy wars in American business history. Durant then reorganized General Motors Company into General Motors Corporation in 1916, merging Chevrolet with GM and merging General Motors of Canada Limited as an ally in 1918. Shortly thereafter, he again lost control, this time for good, after the new vehicle market collapsed. Alfred P. Sloan was picked to take charge of the corporation, and led it to its post-war global dominance when the seven manufacturing facilities operated by Chevrolet before GM acquired the company began to contribute to GM operations. These facilities were added to the individual factories that were exclusive to Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Oakland, and other companies acquired by GM. This unprecedented growth of GM would last into the early 1980s, when it employed 349,000 workers and operated 150 assembly plants.